Woman Who Gouged Out Her Own Eyes: ‘I Thought I Was Sacrificing Myself For The World’

CBS Local — The 20-year-old woman who tore out her own eyes in a drug-induced frenzy has finally returned home and is telling reporters what led her to that horrific day.

Kaylee Muthart of Anderson, South Carolina was released from the hospital on March 1 after recovering from the self-inflicted injuries she suffered outside a local church. The young woman’s mother, Katy Tompkins, says her daughter was battling meth addiction for six months before taking the dose that triggered a psychotic episode on Feb. 6. Tompkins added that doctors believe her daughter’s meth had been laced with another chemical which made her turn violent and hallucinate.

In an interview with People magazine, Muthart says she is grateful to be moving past the drug addiction that left her blind. “It’s the same life, but I’m just learning everything in a new way,” the 20-year-old said. “Life’s more beautiful now, life’s more beautiful than it was being on drugs. It is a horrible world to live in.”

Muthart added that she started using drugs after feeling isolated and lonely. She claims that the tainted batch of drugs made her hallucinate and warped her views on God and the afterlife. “I thought everyone who had died was stuck in their graves, that God was up in Heaven alone, and that I had to sacrifice something important to be able to release everyone in the world to God.”

“I thought I was sacrificing myself for the world,” she told USA Today. “It wasn’t voices, but I thought it was real.”

Muthart’s mother has set up a GoFundMe page to help raise money for a service dog for Kaylee. The fundraiser has brought in over $37,000 since Feb. 12.